This is a nonprovisional application of prior pending French provisional application Ser. No. 98-11157,448 filed Sep. 7, 1998.
The present invention relates to a method of inhibiting the formation of emulsions of oil and water; such emulsions form, for example, during the production of crude oil.
The initial recovery of oil from a new oil well often gives almost pure crude oil, however, it is not long before the composition is extracted as a water-in-oil emulsion. This is due to either the presence of formation water in the oil reservoirs, or the use of enhanced oil recovery processes (or both). As oilwell reservoir pressures drop, and recovery rates fall, a commonly used technique within the industry to boost production is water injection. In the case of oilfields situated under or by the sea, sea water is used for this process. The presence of both types of water leads sooner or later to the recovery of a mixture of oil and water at the well head. Obviously, it is not cost effective to store and transport high water mixtures, hence the water must be separated off or at least reduced to an acceptable concentration. Unfortunately, depending on the nature of the crude oil, this poses a difficult challenge. Crude oil is very variable in composition, depending upon its source. Certain of the components present in crude oil act as natural emulsifiers, and consequently tend to form emulsions from the mixture of oil and water obtained from oil reservoirs under the previously mentioned circumstances. In particular, asphaltenes are good naturally occurring emulsifiers. If the concentration of asphaltenes and other emulsifiers is low, then often, the emulsions formed are naturally unstable. If the concentration is high, however, then it is possible to form very stable emulsions which can be difficult to separate. Mechanical recovery procedures are known, but typically, oil demulsifiers are added to break the emulsion after it has formed. Because the composition and nature of the crude oil emulsions varies quite considerably depending on the source, many different oil demulsifiers are currently in use worldwide; this multiplicity of demulsifiers causes difficulty since care must be taken to select the appropriate demulsifier for each oil field to ensure that it has utility.
Many patent documents describe the wide range of water-in-oil demulsifiers available, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,585 discloses water-in-oil demulsifying agents comprising an adduct of (a) a poly (C3 -C4 alkylene) glycol of molecular weight 6000-26000 and (b) a compound selected from one or more of ethylene oxide and diglycidyl ether. U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,498 teaches oil-in-water emulsion breakers particularly for use with industrial waste water comprising an alkaline aqueous mixture of acrylic acid, an amine acrylate, sodium formate and 2,2I-azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride. U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,449 describes an alkoxylated vinyl polymer demulsifier for crude oil emulsions comprising hydrophobic vinyl monomer(s) and hydrophilic vinyl monomer(s) reacted with alkylene oxide. U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,379 describes demulsifier compositions comprising partially cross-linked reaction products of (a) at least two polyoxyalkylene oxide copolymers and (b) a vinyl monomer. Canadian patent document 1010740 teaches compositions for breaking crude oil emulsions, made by reacting (a) polyoxyalkylene alcohol with (b) maleic anhydride glycidyl acrylate, allyl glycidyl ether and reacting the resultant product with an O- or N-containing vinyl addition monomer. Finally United Kingdom patent 2148931 discloses demulsifiers which are copolymers of allyl or (meth)allyl polyoxyethylene ether, vinyl ester and optionally a (meth)acrylate ester.
However, not only is it necessary to find a demulsifier which has utility to demulsify emulsions with the particular crude oil source, but for those crude oils having a high content of naturally occurring emulsifier agents, in particular, high asphaltene levels, there is a further problem in that many of the commonly used demulsifiers are ineffective, or show reduced efficacy with such emulsions. In certain cases, the emulsions are actually stabilised by the addition of demulsifiers and this makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to extract the water from them. Typically, the crude oil only needs to contain about 5% or more of asphaltene to give rise to stable emulsions which do not respond well to demulsification.
Recently, it has been proposed to control the formation of emulsions by adding emulsion inhibitors to the oil and water mix prior to the formation of a stable emulsion. This could be, for example, near the base of the collector well, or at some other convenient point, such that the inhibitor is mixed with the fluids before the mix is sheared by passing through pumps, valves etc. creating a stable dispersed water in oil system. The crucial difference between demulsifiers and emulsion inhibitors is that a demulsifier is added to the emulsion after it has formed whereas the emulsion inhibitor is added before a stable emulsion is formed and acts to prevent the formation of a stable water in oil dispersion.
A procedure for testing and developing water-in-crude oil emulsion inhibitors is detailed in a paper given by Dalmazzone, Bocard and Ballerini at the Proceedings of the 18th Arctic and Marine Oil Spill Program (AMOP) Technical Seminar dated Jun. 14-16, 1995. Although this disclosure refers to xe2x80x9csurfactantsxe2x80x9d as suitable emulsion inhibitors, no other details are given.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a method of preventing the formation of stable water-in-oil emulsions. In particular, the method is designed to be effective at inhibiting the formation of stable emulsions such as those formed when the oil has a high asphaltene content.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method of inhibiting the formation of stable water-in-oil emulsions comprising adding to either water or oil or both, prior to the formation of a stable water-in-oil emulsion, one or more amphiphilic compounds.
The term xe2x80x9camphiphilic compoundsxe2x80x9d refers to compounds which contain both polar water soluble and hydrophobic water insoluble groups.
Preferably, the amphiphilic compounds comprise a hydrophilic polymeric backbone with one of more hydrophobic groups attached thereto.
The hydrophobic groups are located on the hydrophilic polymeric backbone at one or more of the following positions, a) at one or more of the ends of the backbone, for example as shown by formula (I) below, b) regularly or randomly paced along the length of the backbone, for example as shown by formulae (II) and (III) respectively below, and c) as linking groups to link together two or more portions of the hydrophilic backbone, as shown by formula (IV) below. 
Preferably the hydrophilic polymer backbone comprises polymerised units of one or more of monomers selected from alkylene oxide, (meth)acrylic acid, (meth)acrylate, urethane, cellulose and vinyl alcohol. When an alkylene oxide is used it is preferably a C 2-C3 containing monomer; ethylene oxide is particularly preferred. Hydrophilic backbones containing urethane are especially efficacious.
The hydrophobic moiety may be selected from at least one C4-C30 alkyl, phenyl or alkylphenyl groups, preferably C6-C22 alkyl groups are used and C6-C18 alkyl groups are especially preferred.
The degree of emulsion inhibition activity for the amphiphilic compounds used in the method of the present invention appears to be influenced by its weight average molecular weight. Effective inhibition activity is obtained when the weight average molecular weight is in the range 28,100 to 350,000. In particular, when the backbone comprises urethane units, particularly good activity is obtained when the amphiphilic compounds have a weight average molecular weight of at least 28,200; a weight average molecular weight of from 28,200 to 100,000 is particularly preferred. When the backbone comprises acrylic units the weight average molecular weight is preferably below 350,000; when it is above this level, it becomes increasingly more difficult to disperse the amphiphilic compounds in the crude oil, thus causing inhibition activity to decrease.
Highly preferred are amphiphilic compounds which separate a significant proportion of a stable oil-in-water emulsion after 10 minutes or less following agitation of a mixture of the oil and water.
The amphiphilic compounds may be polymeric compounds which may be prepared, for example, by reacting polyglycols with alcohols in the presence of diisocyanates. The diisocyanates serve to link the polyglycols together, as well as to link the alcohols to the growing polyglycol chains. Alternatively they may be prepared by simply linking hydrophobes to a longer chain polyalkyleneoxide to give a telechelic structure. It is also possible to produce polymers suitable for the invention by for example, emulsion or solution polymerisation.
The amphiphilic compounds may be used alone or in combination with one or more solvents such as xylene, glycols, water and lower alcohols such as isopropanol, to produce a fluid which will disperse in the crude oil and/or the water. Preferably the solvent comprises mixtures of glycols and water, or lower alcohols and water. Surfactants such as alkoxylated nonionics can also produce fluid dispersible blends with the amphiphilic compounds. The amphiphilic compounds may also be used in combination with demulsifying agents.